1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, apparatus, and system for providing a multi-content by conveying a plurality of content in one service in an Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) mobile broadcasting system, and more particularly to a method, apparatus, and system for efficiently providing a multi-content
2. Description of the Related Art
The mobile communication market constantly faces the need for the production of new services through the recombination or integration of existing technologies. Today, with the development of communication and broadcast technologies, the conventional broadcasting system or mobile communication system has reached the phase of providing broadcast services through portable terminals (i.e. mobile terminals), such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like. Convergence of mobile communication service and Internet Protocol (IP) technology is now the mainstream of the next generation mobile communication technology in harmony between the latent and actual market needs, the increasing user demand for multimedia services, the strategy of the service providers for providing new services like the broadcast service in addition to the existing voice service, and the interests of the Information Technology (IT) companies that are reinforcing their mobile communication business to meet user demands.
Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), which is a group involved in the standardization of the interworking between individual mobile technologies. The OMA mainly serves to define various application standards for mobile games, Internet services, etc. Of the working groups belonging to the OMA, the Open Mobile Alliance Mobile Broadcast (OMA BCAST) Sub-working Group is studying the technology for providing broadcast services using mobile terminals. A brief description will now be made of the mobile broadcasting system which is under discussion in the OMA.
First, in an OMA system, a mobile terminal to receive a mobile broadcast service should receive so-called service guide information, containing description information for the service, accounting information for the service, and information on a receiving method for the service. The mobile terminal receives the service according to the information provided through the service guide information. Since a part of service guide information may be changed at any time, a service guide about a specific service is repeatedly transmitted whenever a change is generated in the specific service. Also, due to the characteristics of mobile broadcasting, whenever a new mobile terminal enters the service area, a service guide about a mobile broadcast service is repeatedly transmitted, even if there is no change in the mobile broadcast service. That is, for example, when a new user to receive a mobile broadcast appears by powering on his/her mobile terminal, or when a mobile terminal to receive a new service guide enters the service area due to movement of the user, the new mobile terminal receives a separate service guide, regardless of a service guide which is provided to mobile terminals currently receiving mobile broadcasts.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a service guide used for receiving broadcast services in a general broadcasting system. This configuration is proposed to provide broadcast services to mobile terminals in the OMA BCAST system. One service guide is comprised of a plurality of groups, each of which has its own function, and all the groups are classified into four groups according to their functions, as shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary service guide comprised of an administrative group 100, a provisioning group 110, a core group 120, and an access group 130.
The administrative group 100 is a group for providing basic information needed by a mobile terminal to receive a service guide, and includes a service guide context 101 and a service guide delivery descriptor 102. The service guide context 101 provides a service guide identifier (ID), identification information of the service provider that generates and transmits the service guide, and the entire information on the service guide. The service guide delivery descriptor 102 notifies a mobile terminal of a channel capable of receiving fragments for a plurality of service guides, scheduling information, and update information so that the mobile terminal may receive only the necessary service guide at an appropriate time.
The provisioning group 110 is a group for providing fee information for service reception, and includes a purchase item 111, a purchase data 112, and a purchase channel 113. The purchase item 111 provides fee information for a service or a service bundle, the purchase data 112 provides information indicating how a service user can pay the fee, and the purchase channel 113 provides information on the system where the service user can actually purchase the service.
The access group 130 includes an access 131 and a session description 132, and provides service access information indicating how to receive the services provided through the core group 120, and detailed information on a session in which contents constituting the corresponding service are transmitted, so as to enable the mobile terminal to access the corresponding service. The access 131 provides a plurality of access methods for one service to the mobile terminal, thereby providing a method capable of accessing various additional services based on one service. The session description 132 provides session information for the service defined in one access fragment. Also, as shown in FIG. 1, the service guide information can further include a preview data 124 that provides a preview and icon for the service and contents, in addition to the aforementioned four fragments.
The core group 120 is a group for providing information on the service itself, and includes a service 121, a schedule 122, and a content 123. The service 121 provides a description of the service itself that the user will receive, and also provides information indicating with which content the service can be configured. The schedule 122 provides information on the time at which the service can be provided and used. The content 123 provides information on a plurality of contents constituting the service.
The schedule 122 indicates schedule information for each content constituting each service. That is, the schedule 122 provides information on which content is available during a specific time period, among content included in one service.
In a mobile broadcast service, a plurality of content included in one service can simultaneously be available during a specific time period, an example of which is shown in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 2, a service 140 entitled “Music Channel” includes a plurality of content, which contains Music Top 20 141 provided on Jul. 10, 2007 from 10:00 to 11:00, and which contains Music news 142, Music news 143, Music Video #1 144, Music Video #2 145, and Music Video #3 146, provided on Jul. 10, 2007 from 11:00 to 12:00. The Music news 142 streams through a broadcasting network, the Music news 143, Music Video #1 144, and Music Video #2 145 stream through an interactive network, and the Music Video #3 146 is downloaded through the interactive network.
When a plurality of content are included in one service during the same time period, as described above, the user can select a desired content by one of two methods. A first method is for the user to directly select a desired content as well as the service, thereby receiving the desired content. According to the first method, since the user expressly selects the content, the first method can be implemented without any problem. A second method is for the user not to directly select the content, but to select only an upper service containing a plurality of content, thereby receiving a service. According to the second method, since the user selects only an upper service containing a plurality of content, and his/her terminal selects and receives the content from among the plurality of content contained in the service, the second method has a problem in that there is no consistency. That is, since the terminal cannot recognize which content has a higher priority among the plurality of content contained in one service, the terminal randomly selects and begins to receive the content, wherein criteria for selecting the content may differ depending on terminals, so that the user may be confused. Also, although a broadcasting station configures one service with a plurality of content, and desires to set a specific content among the content as a primary content, there is no method for setting a specific content among a plurality of content as a primary content in the current mobile broadcasting standard.